Smart advertising

February 1, 2008 Smart advertising

Which people pass which billboards, and how often? A new technique provides the answers, enabling advertising experts to plan the perfect campaign. © Fraunhofer IAIS

If an advert is to have any effect, as many people as possible must see it. A special technique enables analysts to predict which people will pass which billboards, and how often. This makes it possible to optimally plan advertising campaigns.

A desert. An endless expanse. In it, an elegantly dressed woman gazes into the distance. No more is revealed on this poster. Only on the next billboard is the mystery solved. A black car is parked near her in the desert. Marketing experts have discovered that this strategy of using two consecutive posters often works and attracts a lot of attention.

Anyone planning an advertising campaign has numerous questions: How many people will pass the poster? Which locations will attract the most attention from passers-by? For how long will they stop to look at the advertisement? Which type of people will look at it?

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS in Sankt Augustin can provide answers to these questions. They have developed a frequency atlas that indicates how many people pass certain billboard locations every hour.

The atlas covers all German cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, providing information on a total of 6.2 million street sections. “In addition, we are working on analytical techniques that enable us to answer further questions,” says IAIS project manager Terence Dörflinger.

The scientists can determine how often a given person drives, cycles or walks past a certain billboard, how fast they are moving, from what angle they perceive the poster – i.e. which direction they are coming from –, whether they are male or female, how old they are, and which target group they belong to. “We carried out a study in which we equipped thousands of test people with GPS receivers, and monitored their routes through town for a time,” explains Dörflinger. “People usually have to see a poster several times before they consciously register it. If we know which routes they take through town, we can place the advertisements accordingly.”

The researchers employed complex algorithms and techniques to analyze and process the gathered data. Thanks to their results, advertising strategists can now plan their billboard campaigns in such a way that they reach as many members of the desired target group as possible. The new tools are already being used by media planners in Switzerland, and are even available online for users to devise their own campaigns. The researchers will demonstrate their analytical tools at CeBIT in Hanoverfrom March 4 to 9.

Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft


print this article email this article download pdf blog this article bookmark this article     Stumble it Digg this share on Facebook retweet share on Reddit add to delicious
Rate this story - 2 /5 (2 votes)

Rank Filter

Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

  • nilbud - Feb 03, 2008
    • Rank: not rated yet
    Great eventually penis extension and fake rolex ads can follow you around town. Preparation H, Zovirax, Tampax, could turn into a protection racket, buy the product or be hounded by adverts.

February 1, 2008 all stories

Comments: 1

2 /5 (2 votes)
  • Stumble this up

  • Digg this

  • share this

  • hide
  • Related Stories




  • hide
  • Relevant PhysicsForums posts

Other News

New search technique for images and videos has broad applications

New search technique for images and videos has broad applications

Technology / Computer Sciences

created 12 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have developed a powerful new approach to a fundamental problem in computer vision: how to program a computer to recognize or categorize ...


New 'finFETS' promising for smaller transistors, more powerful chips

New 'finFETs' promising for smaller transistors, more powerful chips

Technology / Semiconductors

created 13 hours ago | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Purdue University researchers are making progress in developing a new type of transistor that uses a finlike structure instead of the conventional flat design, possibly enabling engineers ...


Hydrogen milestone moves energy independence one step forward

Hydrogen milestone moves energy independence one step forward

Technology / Energy

created 11 hours ago | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Big things often come in small packages. That's certainly the case with the potential created by recent successes in hydrogen research at Idaho National Laboratory.


The user-pays model is already in place at News Corp's Wall Street Journal

News Corp's Murdoch warns he may block Google

Technology / Internet

created 23 hours ago | popularity 2 / 5 (5) | comments 7

Global media mogul Rupert Murdoch has accused Google of stealing from his News Corp. empire, and warned he may block the search engine from accessing its content.


Google says its news approach is "fully consistent with copyright law"

Google says Murdoch stories can be taken off

Technology / Internet

created 15 hours ago | popularity 1 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Google said on Tuesday, in response to threats by Rupert Murdoch to ban the search engine from listing content from his news empire, that any company could ask to have stories taken off. ...